Primates Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Primates are a group of animals that include human beings. All primates are mammals. There are about 180 species that are members of the primate class. Besides humans, primates include great apes or gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gibbons, lemurs, aye-ayes, and macaques. Primates are classified into two main groups. The Anthropoid family includes human beings, apes, and monkeys. The other primates are in the Prosimian family. It includes aye-ayes, galagos, lemurs, lorises, pottos, and tarsiers. There are other species that have been included as prosimians, such as tree shrews, but not all scientists accept this classification.

Primates’ similarities to humans have made them a frequent subject for the study of human diseases. The rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), of which there are three subspecies, were used in experiments in the 1930s and 1940s. The rhesus antigens in the blood of rhesus monkeys enabled researchers to identify blood groups in humans.

Beginning in 1948, monkeys were sent in rockets into space to study the physiological effects of weightlessness. Rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees were used in a number of space experiments. For example, in 1959 a rhesus monkey named Able was sent on a Jupiter Rocket on a bioflight. He was trained to tap a switch when a red light flashed, to collect data on performance. In 1961 a chimpanzee, Ham, was closely monitored for cardiovascular responses during a Mercury flight. In 1985 small primates were also studied for the effects of space travel during a 13-day voyage aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Since most primates live in social groups, researchers have investigated their behavior, communications techniques, and organizational patterns. Insights gathered about their behavior have contributed to understanding human behavior. Researchers have found that some primates use tools, and, in the case of chimpanzees, wage war. Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees for many years in the Gombe Stream Game Reserve in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). She observed that chimpanzees are not strict vegetarians. They eat meat for a period and then return to a vegetarian diet for other periods. In order to get meat they will sometimes engage in chimpanzee cannibalism. Dian Fossey, (1932-85), an American ethnologist, studied the highland gorillas for some years, but was killed protecting these great primates.

In contrast, some prosimians live as individuals rather than in groups. Bonobos (Pan paniscus), such as Kanzi, at the Language Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, have been able to communicate with humans to a limited degree using a keyboard and symbols. The study contributed to the educational theory that children who are taught to sign can communicate before they can speak.

Fully half of all primate species are threatened with extinction. The main threats come from humans: The destruction of forest habitat and the hunting of primates as pests, as stock for zoos, for pets, and for meat have reduced the numbers of most primates. The hunting of primates for food-the bush meat trade-is a serious threat. Gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos in central Africa are especially vulnerable to commercial hunters, who may engage in the illegal or unregulated slaughter of many wild animals. The price of great ape meat is high because many Africans believe that they draw strength from the meat. The hunting of apes kills more than the total amount currently held in zoos.

Bibliography:

Simon Bearder et al., Primates in Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2004);
John Russell Napier, The Natural History of the Primates (MIT Press, 1985);
Dale Peterson, Eating Apes (University of California Press, 2003).